Archie Backhouse Archives - North West End UK

30May

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Strategic Love Play – Soho Theatre

Two singletons walk into a bar, ready for (at least) a polite two drinks’ worth of getting-to-know-you chatter with a person they’ve never met outside the confines of their phone screen. What could go wrong? The dating app-induced first date is a scene many of us are all too familiar with, and it sets up the premise of Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play, currently playing at Soho Theatre until 15th June. We join the two characters — simply referred to as Woman (Letty Thomas) and Man (Archie Backhouse) — at their first meeting, and it’s abundantly clear from the get-go that they’re not on the same wavelength. While Man seems content exchanging bumbling pleasantries that avoid any risk of a genuinely enlightening conversation, Woman is bitingly honest and desperate to dig deeper....

Strategic Love Play – Soho Theatre

Dating in this day and age seems to be getting harder and harder, what with less natural ‘bumping into someone’ and more organised ‘meet ups’ with your fingers crossed that a spark lights and then you can finally relax because you’re back on track. ‘Him’ and ‘Her’ (Archie Backhouse and Letty Thomas) find themselves in a pub with two pints and both completely willing to make it work. But it doesn’t, she makes it difficult admitting that she’s unlovable and all she asks is for him to not lie. He, confused then of course lies and says ‘you’re great’ but I think I’m going to leave. Somehow she convinces him to stay. The next hour takes us through a whole evening of deep, truthful conversation ending with a contract of what ‘this’ is. They agree to be like those old couples holding hands, compl...

Telethon – Shoreditch Town Hall

Telethon, written and directed by Stu Barter and Clare Dunn, is a surreal dark comedy exploring the division in today’s society and how this is exacerbated by social media, as well as performative action and how people use this to make themselves feel better about situations in which they are otherwise helpless or unwilling to take action drastic enough to make a real difference. The show is presented as a live TV charity variety show, presented by veteran TV presenter, Jennifer (Katie Lovell), breakout children’s TV presenter, Erica (Clare Dunn) and successful YouTube vlogger, Chris (Archie Backhouse). All three are super enthusiastic about raising enough money to plant one million trees in the UK to fight climate change, but as Jennifer’s scandalous history starts to impact their effo...